Tanaya’s First Event: Triptych Saturday March 3

One of the things I’m excited about is that Tanaya Winder, as our Spring Coordinator, will help draw lines and make connections between the university creative writing students and the larger citywide poetry community. I believe community helps all of us learn and grow and stay challenged—and expanding and joining communities helps poetry become more of a force in our city.

So the first event Tanaya has put together is a really exciting chance for every poet and listener to hear a bit of what a few UNM MFA students are doing.

This Saturday March 3rd from 4:00 to 5:30 at the Projects (a warehouse theater at 3614 High Street NE, just north of Candelaria and east of edith/broadway and west of the freeway), we all have a chance to hear three writers explore the themes of Bridging Borders.

UNM MFA students Casandra Lopez, David Andrew Talamantes, and Natalie Scenters-Zapico join together to read from a mix of genres blending the borders between fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Their works’ themes include: literal borders, themes of trauma, urban violence, immigration, religion, and love. Come check out how these three writers bridge borders in their genres and themes.

Casandra Lopez was raised in Southern California and is of Cahuilla, Luiseño, Tongva descent. She is finishing up her MFA from UNM and is a recipient of scholarships from the Southern California Tribal Education Institute, Squaw Valley Writers Conference and Voices Of Our Nation workshop. Her work has appeared in various literary journals. Most recently she has poetry forthcoming in Weber–The Contemporary West, Caesura, and Sakura Review. Her work often tackles themes of trauma, urban violence and loss. In addition, she also interested in exploring contemporary issues of Indigenous diaspora.

David Andrew Talamantes is a gay Piscean fronterizo (which means borderlander) writer born and raised in El Paso, Texas. David earned a B.A. in Creative Writing from UT-El Paso where he began his writing career as a poet and freelance eroticist. He has been published in the Rio Grande Review, several magazines of a scandalous nature, and his short story “Huerfanita” was recently published in “From Macho to Mariposa: New Gay Latino Fiction.” Some themes David writes about include immigration, the border, love, religion, food, and sex. He teaches creative writing and technical writing at UNM where he is finishing his MFA in a few months.

Natalie Scenters-Zapico is a fronteriza poet from the sister cities of El Paso, Texas and Juárez, México. She is an MFA candidate at the University of New Mexico and co-poetry editor of Blue Mesa Review. Her work is concerned with literal borders, conceptions of metaphorical ones, and immigration. Her work is forthcoming or has appeared in Cream City Review, The Minnesota Review, The Acentos Review, and Bellevue Literary Review.